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Abs split wye

03-12-2009, 10:25 AM

this is from a 25 year old building. 2'' wye on first floor inside lav sink cabinet that split at the wye junction. bottom joint is connected to no hub coming through 12'' slab from garage below. upper vent and waste lines for the 2nd and 3rd floor are abs.

i know from my 15 year track record there that this is the at least the 6th time i've repaired similar fittings. typically been the kitchens on the 1st and second floor.

i know when we did 3 story abs jobs, we needed an expansion joint on the second floor for waste and vents. anything more than 20' needed the expansion joints. i don't think they have them here?

pretty tight working area and 3/8'' shear-wall. other side was a stacking washer and dryer, no thanks.

the drywall cut out tool (dewalt) made an easy way to cut the drywall and the 3/8'' ply .pretty dusty but a mask was all i needed. too many copper and gas lines to use a sawzall.

Comment

The weight of the 2" line on the wye branch probably caused the split. An expansion joint or a simple riser clamp secured to the line at the plate level of the immediate floor above would have prevented the crack. Recently fixed a broken horizontal 4x2 wye where the branch ran to an 1/8 bend which ran horizontally to a washing machine. The washer line wasn't properly hung. The eventual sag on the line accumulated water and split the wye.
Don't see too many cracked fittings, but I have seen a number of cases where the pipe sheered right below a fitting. This was due to the run of bad pipe from the '80's made with non virgin ABS resin (as in ground up old telephones and such). I remember when the claims started coming in with the unhappy coincidence that the manufacturers responsible were all out of business. Doesn't that figure!

Comment

Maybe I missed it in the pics or Ricks post but is the original install done in CI? It looks like it could have been what with the no-hub bands in the pics and where they are placed. Can't tell for sure from the photos if there is CI there or not.

I wonder if someone skimped on the hangers or if they have loosened up over time and the full weight of the riser is (or was) on the CI upright wye. When that split it looks like they repaired it with a wye and a 1/8 bend and some no-hub bands, and that has succumbed to the weight of the riser which would have been temporarily relieved when the repair was made.

"When we build let us think we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be such work that our descendants will thank us for, and let us think, as we lay stone upon stone, that a time is to come when these stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say, as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, "See! This our fathers did for us."
John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)

Comment

Two things come to mind from this post. First thing, this is great news. I allways thought I made a mistake getting into service plumbing now when the modern materials would not require repairing or replacing. I spend most of my time either replacing galv. water and drains or repairing problems associated with old galv. Entropy wins again, it looks like there may be work for me in the future. Second thing, how great is it to have the same customer for fifteen years.

Comment

Two things come to mind from this post. First thing, this is great news. I allways thought I made a mistake getting into service plumbing now when the modern materials would not require repairing or replacing. I spend most of my time either replacing galv. water and drains or repairing problems associated with old galv. Entropy wins again, it looks like there may be work for me in the future. Second thing, how great is it to have the same customer for fifteen years.

this customer is the homeowners association. then you have the actual owners. then the owners move to another building or a private home.

normally i start off with 1 owner and eventually move into the hoa and other owners.

the draw back is doing association work. my insurance rates are much higher. no problem with working for the unit owners, but it's when you work on the common area or bill the association that the insurance rates are higher.

not only higher, but much harder to get. lots of insurance co's don't insure plumbers that do hoa work. too much liability potential.